The present invention relates to the field of personal digital assistants; more particularly, the present invention relates to a personal digital assistant having expanded capabilities including wireless communication capabilities.
The popularity and use of Personal Digital Assistants (PDAs) and wireless telephones has increased in recent years. A PDA or hand-held computer is primarily a lightweight, compact productivity and communications tool that can typically be held in one hand, leaving the other free to input data with a pen type stylus or a reduced size keyboard. A PDA provides computing and information storage and retrieval capabilities for personal or business use. Typical uses include schedule and address book storage and retrieval, as well as note taking functions. In addition, many PDAs are capable of running a variety of application software packages (e.g., calculators, text and/or image editors, etc.).
Wireless telephones are integrated radio transmitter-receivers that are capable of accessing a vast web of existing telephone connections. Increasingly, wireless telephones are being combined with PDAs in order to perform more advanced functions, such as transmitting, receiving and displaying text messages. However, typical PDA/wireless telephone combinations have limited functionality. For example, although typical wireless telephones may provide for limited address book information (e.g., telephone listings by name), they do not feature full address books and schedule calendars. Additionally, typical PDA/wireless telephone combinations are unable to run application software packages or transmit and receive video data. Further, PDA/wireless telephone combinations typically include a small LED display which makes it very difficult to use such units for anything other than displaying telephone numbers and the status of a call.
Due to the limited functionality of typical PDA/wireless telephone combinations, users typically transport both a PDA and a wireless telephone. Having to physically carry around two pieces of electronic equipment is very inconvenient. Thus, having to use both a wireless telephone and a PDA is very cumbersome and disadvantageous. Taking this one step further, users also typically transport a wallet. Having to physically carry around two electronic devices and a wallet is even more inconvenient.
A wireless telephone engine, smart-card engine and Personal Digital Assistant (PDA) engine are integrated in a single device, wherein an address book is shared by the wireless telephone engine and PDA engine. An associated display unit including a touch screen is coupled to the PDA. The smart-card engine is configured to communicate with external devices via a short-range transceiver. Additionally, the PDA engine is configured to automatically balance an electronic account ledger based upon point of sale transactions, and control a remote device by transmitting signals to the device via the short-range transceiver and/or the wireless telephone engine. The PDA engine is also configured to receive signals from the remote device regarding the status of the remote device. Further, the PDA engine is configured to exchange data with a remote computer via the wireless telephone engine. The exchanged data includes information stored within the PDA engine and the address book.
In another embodiment, the device also includes digital camera for recording images, a modern coupled to the wireless telephone engine and the PDA engine, input/output (I/O) circuitry coupled to the wireless telephone engine, smart-card engine and the PDA engine, and speech recognition circuitry configured to access the wireless telephone engine, the address book and the PDA engine. In addition, the device includes a Global Positioning System (GPS) antenna and a GPS engine coupled to the GPS antenna.